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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

You Must Be Assimilated

Within the slick marketing package of the Common Core, you will often hear the term 'lifelong learning'. Sounds like a good thing, right?Wrong.Education reformers have created their own definitions for words. Therefore, a word like innovation doesn't mean creativity, but rather connectivity.The same has occured with 'lifelong learning.' When we, the 'uneducated' masses hear 'lifelong learning', we think of pursuing knowledge all throughout our lives. We want our children to be lifelong learners. Seekers of truth. Lovers of literature. We eagerly embrace this vision for our children.The educrats embrace a completely antithetical vision for our children.Shared-knowledge, innovation, personalized learning.(Remember those words don't mean what the dictionary definition says. We need to find a new dictionary.)"Elitist Educrat's Glossary of Terms"Shared-knowledge -- Information that is carefully managed and infused into the group. The 'basis and goal of collective intelligence is mutual recognition and enrichment of individuals rather than the cult of fetishized or hypostatized communities.' In other words, the needs of the group override the needs of the individual. Independent thinking is therefore quashed. There is no learning beyond what they want you to learn. No knowledge beyond what you are given.Innovation -- Connectivity to the whole. (Think of the Borg for all you sci-fi fans.) A constant stream of data being distributed and the reactions to the data recorded.

Personalized learning -- A learning plan designed to alter specific behaviors, beliefs or attiudes. 'Undesireable' learning traits will be weeded out through curriculum and learning projects.Educrats are actively pushing an educational reform model that requires our children to become lifelong learners. The collaboration aspect is written into every standard of the Common Core State Standards Initiative and must be demonstrated. Communication, or what we think of as the ability to transmit ideas, is used to persuade members of the student's sphere of influence to the groupthink consensus. Creativity is being used to show the evaluators that the material (propaganda) has been thoroughly absorbed. Critical thinking teaches a student to bypass rational thought about a subject and internalize social-emotional connections to the material being taught. A good lifelong learner embodies all of the above 4 C's of 21st century skills. Educating the whole child includes the re-education of a child's inherent sense of self-centricity. And while we will all agree that a sense of compassion and regard for others needs to be taught to a child, let us also remember that without free will compassion is meaningless. When it is simply a duty to care for a piece (person) so that the needs of the whole collective are met by that piece, the act of caring for that piece of the collective becomes no more compassionate than repairing a broken engine part on car. A good lifelong learner ceases to utilize inquiry, rational thought or independent thinking. They have successfully been assimilated into the collective. Their own well-being, dreams, and desires have been cast aside for the good of the community. It is our individuality which makes us human beings. We are not parts of a system. Resistance is not futile. Don't let your child be assimilated.